The Way It Should Be
by KrystalBlaze - Jerikor
Summary: Matt is locked inside his thoughts about the broken Team Extreme. This story is based on the match between Taker and Matt on the Smackdown! not to long ago.


This is Akila and this is yet another fic. Keep on uploading! It's just that me and Blazer's computer is busted, so we can't use that. We're spending a week at our grandfather's house, so we can use his and it works wonderfully. So we're just uploading whatever we can. So if you guys want us to update, don't be surprised if it takes a long time, 'cause our grandfather lives five hours away, all the way in the desert. But please don't give up on our stories: sooner or later they'll be updated, even though it might take a whole darn while.  
  
Enough jabber. This is just a fic about Team Extreme. About what their going through. You'll be able to guess who's narrative this is soon enough.  
  
Enjoy.  
  
  
  
THE WAY IT SHOULD BE  
  
  
  
Larynx. Funny names these things have. In this case, my voice box.  
  
I thought I was going to explode, the pain in my throat and body was so much. My head was pounding and I was so dizzy I thought I was going to throw up.  
  
I felt them pulling along, a voice in my ear. "Don't worry, Matt, you'll be okay. Fine."  
  
Sure. I felt fucked up and they were telling me I was going to be fine?  
  
Okay. Fine.  
  
I felt my head being strapped down to the strecher. The edge of it cut into my throat. I spat out, choking, coughing.  
  
"Sorry Matt. Hang on."  
  
Mmm. Sure.  
  
My mind blanked against the pain. I let myself float along on the strecher. I felt cold night air hit me. Goody. Almost to the ambulence. Then maybe I wouldn't be in so much agony. The strecher halted and I heard the steady whir of a vehicle. Suddenly a medic besides me gasped.  
  
Startled, I opened my eyes.  
  
The Undertaker's wild ones looked coldly down at me.  
  
Fear radiated through me. I felt my eyes grow wide in fear. No, no, no. No more pain. Please, no more pain. I had suffered enough.  
  
I felt his hand grab my hair and pull back. I held back a whimper. He locked my head in a lock so my eyes looked straight at him. I didn't hear what else he said. I only heard the last.  
  
"Was the bitch really worth it?"  
  
He let me go and strode away. Thank God.  
  
  
  
The amubulence ride was slow. It gave me a good deal of time to think. Maybe too much. Taker's sentence replayed over and over in my mind.  
  
Was the bitch really worth it?  
  
I knew who he meant. Knew her all too well. Lita. Amy. My ex- girlfriend.  
  
I had loved her. Loved until she had consumed me, until all I thought about was her, her, her. She had been my weakness. She had been my strength. She had been everything.  
  
Until Jeff, my brother, my flesh and blood, came along.  
  
I loved my brother. I loved him even now. But he was crazy. It was plain and simple. He lived on that one moment, he lived on that adrenaline rush. That was all he wanted, was all he wanted ever to happen. To be trapped in that high moment and never be let out. It scared me to watch him, watch him leap and twist and turn. He didn't know what was real, what was impossible to do and what not to do. He was stuck in a dream.  
  
He was my brother. I couldn't watch him die. I couldn't. So I did the only thing I knew to do, the only thing that would make him quit.  
  
I started blaming him for everything. Every little wrong move I tossed the blame onto him. Sometimes it was justifiable. But most of the time it was false. Most of the time it was a fluke that cost us matches. Mistakes. Errors. But he screwed up enough for my claims to reach his mind.  
  
And something else behind my fear for his safety fueled my concern for him. My at-that-time-girlfriend. Amy. I was scared at that time, scared for my brother, scared for our friendship, scared for things I didn't know what to call. But my fears had led to our dissolved relationship.  
  
I truly did believe she had screwed me at the match at Vengence. I still do. Yes. I had trapped her into that postion of referee. But she had needed to call it fairly. And she didn't. The tension, the fear, the pain had driven me to a point of madness the night after, when I had officially broken it off with her. But I had seen it coming for a while. I saw the undying love in her eyes, yes; but something was different. Maybe it was her. Maybe it was Jeff. Maybe it was me.  
  
But a schism had happened. Jeff and I were tearing each other apart off the screen. Amy had made things worse.  
  
Taker's question echoed in my mind.  
  
Was the bitch really worth it?  
  
The disbelief as I had watched Taker decimate both of them on Raw was beyond myself. I had not thought my brother could lose so badly, even to one of the best in the business. But he had. And I had not been there to support him. It was worse when Amy had gotten involved. She had payed dearly for it as well as Jeff.  
  
Was tonight's pain worth it? Worth everything?  
  
I loved Jeff dearly. I loved Amy as well. A part of me still wanted to get back with her. Any way I saw it, I loved them both. I had not been there for them when they had needed them.  
  
But had the pain been worth it? Had my shoved up larynx been worth my love?  
  
Amy I loved. Jeff I loved. I had battled for both of them. Fought as hard and as long as I could take. I contemplated my feelings.  
  
Yes. Yes. Yes.  
  
Every single wound I had taken, every thump of my body, every rattle of my bones had been worth it. All of it.  
  
I loved Amy and Jeff with all my heart. Fierce anger burned inside me at their beating. Even though I was a bastard, I was an avenging bastard. The air I breathed fed the fire inside me. Every moment I lived was a reason for avenging Jeff and Amy.  
  
I remembered Taker's question.  
  
I remembered Amy's sweet, gentle eyes.  
  
I remembered my burning, spitting rage.  
  
I remembered Jeff's saying: live for the moment.  
  
The moment. In those moments I had been in the air of the ring, I had shown the world so clearly I still loved my brother. I had showed I still cared for my ex-girlfriend. Live for the moment.  
  
Jeff, my brother, yeah, he's crazy, but he's a crazy with a head on his shoulders.  
  
Amy, my ex, yeah, she's wild, but she knows how to care and how to teach others as well.  
  
Me, myself, yeah, I'm a lost person, but I know when I need help.  
  
I'm just a lone, lost person. Yeah, tha'ts all I am. I need help. There is no better help than love. Yeah, love. I know just where to find that love.  
  
Yeah. I'm lost. I'm confused. I don't know wrong from right. I can't be the judge of things I don't know. I understand that now, as I lay strapped into a strecher.  
  
Funny how things work out. How it took Taker's beating for me to realize what I had missed in my life.  
  
Yeah. Team Extreme had disbanded.  
  
Yeah. I had broken it off with Amy.  
  
Yeah. Jeff was a crazy person who wad feuding with his own brother.  
  
Yeah. I was crazy, thinking I knew everything.  
  
Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah.  
  
But alright.  
  
I laughed aloud in the amubulence.  
  
It had taken something violent to bring me back to earth. But it had brought me back. My mind wandered. Amy and Jeff were resting in North Carolina off their injuries.  
  
It was not too late to repair what was broken. It might even be stronger.  
  
I smiled inside the ambuluence.  
  
Yeah. Life is wild and crazy. But that's the way it's supposed to be. 


End file.
